


silence speaks louder than words

by lostmemoria



Series: tumblr fics [33]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Deaf Character, Deaf!Jordan, Disability, F/M, Trapped In Elevator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-14
Updated: 2015-11-14
Packaged: 2018-05-01 13:40:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5207918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostmemoria/pseuds/lostmemoria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jordan doesn’t usually wear his hearing aid when he just needs to run to the store around the corner of the street and grab a gallon of milk or a carton of eggs. Everyone on the whole block already knows he’s nearly all the way deaf, the result of being too close to a bomb when it exploded a few years ago back when he was on the Hazardous Device Team in the military.</p><p>He’s only twenty four now, but the hearing aid make him feel a lot older.</p>
            </blockquote>





	silence speaks louder than words

**Author's Note:**

> **anon** asked: "I don't have my hearing aids in, you don't know sign language, and we're stuck in an elevator. Your miming is very funny and adorable though?"

Jordan doesn’t usually wear his hearing aid when he just needs to run to the store around the corner of the street and grab a gallon of milk or a carton of eggs. Everyone on the whole block already knows he’s nearly all the way deaf, the result of being too close to a bomb when it exploded a few years ago back when he was on the Hazardous Device Team in the military.

He’s only twenty four now, but the hearing aid make him feel a lot older.

Balancing the grocery bag in one arm, Jordan pushes the glass doors of the apartment building and enters back into the warmth of the lobby, leaving the cool air of the evening behind. He waves at Teresa, the receptionist at the front desk who gives him a thoughtful nod in greeting and he warmly smiles when he passes by Melissa Mccall, the nurse who lives on the same floor as him. He stops by to quickly thank her for the lasagna dish that she sent him for dinner the other day before heading towards the lobby elevator, punching the button for the sixth floor. The doors are about to close when a hand suddenly peaks through stopping them as a young woman with bright strawberry blonde hair enters. She flashes him a tiny smile and murmurs something, _excuse me_ , he manages to pick up through lip reading as she moves around him and punches the button for the fifth floor.

The elevator doors finally close then, the lift slightly rocking as it starts to move up and the woman turns away after to lean against the opposite end of the wall from him. Jordan can’t help but steal a quick glance at the redhead, sparking his interest because he’s never seen her around the building or even this street before. He wants to ask her if she just moved in, but decides not to in fear of not being able to read her lips clearly and then having to explain sheepishly to a pretty girl how he’s deaf.

Luckily, she doesn’t say anything else to him either and Jordan peels his gaze away from her and focuses on the blinking numbers of the floors as they go up instead. After the fourth floor however, the elevator shakes in a way that’s a little too violently than he’s used to. The elevators in the building are known to be terrible and have been under maintenance more than a few times before, but right after the elevator stops shaking the first time it trembles again, harder than the first time, the impact making the girl next to him stumble and fall forward.

He lurches and catches her before she does fall though, steadying her in his arms as the lights above them flicker a few times before the elevator comes to a full screeching stop. They’re _stuck._ And all Jordan can think about is how the universe must be conspiring against him for not wearing his hearing aid today by getting him stuck in an elevator, and that too with a beautiful girl.

When he looks down at her she’s saying something, but he doesn’t realize it at first because he’s so fixated on the fact of how _damn_ pretty she is close up. It takes him a few seconds, but then she’s tapping his arm and he finally figures out what she’s saying. _Let me go?_

He does, almost immediately and stepping back to give her some space. “Sorry.”

She doesn’t reply, instead taking out her phone and calling someone. She starts talking to someone as she paces around the small elevator shaft but Jordan can barely pick up what she’s saying since the cellphone receiver covers her mouth. He can pick up on her emotions though, first she’s angry and then as the seconds pass by, she gets confused and then even though he can’t hear her, he can tell she’s yelling into the phone now. In a way, he’s kind of glad he can’t hear that.

She hangs up soon after and then looks at him, clearly annoyed, and then says something else in what he can only imagine is a thundering tone. He picks up on _are, stand,_ and _there_ , but everything else she says is too fast and he doesn’t get it. So finally, before she gets more irritated, he says, “I can’t hear you. I’m deaf. Sorry.”

And as soon as he says it all irritation and annoyance at him disappears from her face, her expression softening into something apologetic and horrified, probably at herself for yelling at him, a deaf person, since he’s seen that look a lot on other people who don’t realize he’s deaf at first.

 _Oh, god, I’m sorry, I didn’t know_ , she says a lot more slower this time, giving him enough time to read her lips.

“It’s okay. I forgot my hearing aid but I can lip read a little.” She nods and then he points at her phone, “did you call someone?”

She nods again and then sighs before stepping closer to him and showing him her screen. He squints and sees that she has no signal. The call dropped before she can finish talking to whoever she was talking to.

“You can use my phone? Maybe I have a few bars,” he says, fishing it out of his pocket. Her face brightens when they find out that he does in fact have signal, a little weak but enough for her to make another call to get help.

When she finishes, Jordan’s sitting on the floor and she hands him back his phone, giving him a warm smile and thankful nod. She then raises up a single finger, mouthing the word _one_ , and then thinking a second on what her next gesture should be, she taps her wrist.

One hour. It’s going to take one hour for the elevator to start working again.

He should be annoyed, but he can’t get himself to be, especially not when this girl is trying hard to communicate with him. It’s cute and it makes him smile. “It’s okay, I don’t know sign language either.” He thought of learning it but after getting his hearing aid, he didn’t think he’d need it.

His response makes her laugh and he badly wishes he could hear it. He’s sure it sounds just as beautiful as she looks. She takes a seat in front of him on the floor then, making new but overly dramatic gestures that he doesn’t understand at all.

“I might be deaf but I’m pretty sure that doesn’t make me a master of outrageous gestures,” he jokes.

She rolls her eyes at him playfully and then fetches her phone out, opening up the screen for adding a new contact. She points out the first line to him. _First name._

“You want to know my name? Well you could have just said so.” He grins and she shoots him a look that clearly says, _not funny_ , making it his turn to chuckle. “I’m Jordan. And you?”

She thinks of a way that she can tell him so that he can understand and ends up pulling out a pen from her purse. She gestures for him to give her his hand and he does, letting her write out her name in pink glittery pen. Her hands are cold against his burning skin and it makes him shiver in the best way possible. When she lets go, he reads the name _Lydia_ in perfect cursive handwriting. “Lydia,” he pronounces and despite not being able to hear himself say it out loud, he loves the way it rolls off his tongue. “That’s a pretty name. Are you new around here? Did you just move in?”

He watches her red lips curve into a flirtatious smile from his comment before she shakes her head. She swipes through her phone again and then shows him a picture on it, a picture of her and a brunette girl that he actually recognizes because she lives in the same building as him. The only reason he’s seen her is because she does her morning runs the same time as him and they both go to the same gym.  
  
“Oh, I know her. Well—I don’t know her personally, but I’ve seen her around. She’s your friend?”

Lydia nods, bright smile on her face as she holds out her arms as wide as she can and says, _best friend._

He smiles. “I used to have a best friend too. But I lost him in the army.” His smile falters at the memory of losing Camden, his best friend that he met when he joined the army and how they had been together for nearly three years before his death.

Lydia’s smile fades and she taps her ears. _Is that where you lost your hearing too?_

“Yeah. I was on the HDT, that’s the hazardous devices team in the military. We deal with explosives and other things...And one day, I was standing too close to a bomb and…” He makes a gesture with his hands, mimicking a bomb explosion. “Turns out anything above 85 decibels can really kill your ears.” He shrugs, but Lydia’s expression looks both petrified and shocked. “It’s not that bad really—you just get used to it,” he tries to reassure her, not wanting her think that he’s looking for sympathy because he really isn’t.

He lowers his gaze from her a little embarrassed, debating in his mind now whether he should have even told her that in the first place or not. But his thoughts are interrupted when he feels a hand softly grasp his and he looks up meeting Lydia’s gaze. She gives him a soft smile and squeezes his hand and it’s one of those things where nothing needs to be said in order for him to understand.

And without hesitation or thinking twice about it, Jordan gently twines their fingers together and she lets him. It surprises him in a way, how he barely knows her yet he’s never felt so comfortable with someone before, and how if the elevator never stopped in the first place they would have just gone their separate ways and he would have never saw her again.

Maybe the universe is conspiring against him after all.

Then all of a sudden, the elevator shakes again. It’s not as hard as the first time it happened but it makes both him and Lydia stand up immediately, still holding hands. The lights overhead flicker once more and the lift rocks back and forth a few more times before finally stabilizing as the floor numbers start blinking above the door once more. And just like that, the elevator starts up again and Lydia smiles at him in relief, still not letting go of his hand. Jordan doesn’t have the heart to either.

After a few moments, the doors finally open to her floor and he looks at her and then back down to their joined hands. He’s not really sure what to say. “I...guess I should go now.”

That prompts her to finally let go but as soon as she does, she does another gesture. She points to herself first and then to her eyes before pointing back to him and making a motion with her hand that indicates a repetition of something.

_Will I see you again?_

The question makes his heart beat a little faster and his cheeks burn in a blush. “Maybe. Hopefully I have my hearing aid next time we do. I mean, not that I don’t like your gestures and miming—I do! They’re really cute and adorable, and um—” He stops himself from talking before he says another stupid thing and his nervousness makes Lydia smile.

She pulls out the pink glittery pen from her bag again then and gestures for his hand once more and he gives it to her almost as if it’s second nature. And right below her name she starts writing something else. It’s only when she pulls away that Jordan sees the scrawl of numbers across his palm. Her phone number. The last time he got a girl’s phone number, he doesn’t even _remember._ And if that doesn’t make him blush more furiously than he already is, when he looks back up at Lydia again he sees her put her thumb to her ear and her pinky to her mouth.

 _Call me_ , she says.

She winks at him before finally stepping out of the elevator, leaving Jordan feeling like a lovestruck teenager.

 

&.

 

The next day, he calls her. And this time he definitely remembers to put in his hearing aid.

 


End file.
